Chapter 420: Allen vs. the God of Symbiotes
"Uncle Dark really knows how to play it safe."
Seeing Darkseid flee, Allen couldn't help but admire the decisiveness.
Having fought on Apokolips before, he knew all too well how terrifying New God-level undead could be.
In a one-on-one scenario, Darkseid naturally wouldn't be afraid.
But a group of nine undead, all at the eighteenth tier, didn't exactly play fair.
Especially when there was also a bone dragon involved.
Darkseid clearly remembered that even before reaching New God-level, that bone dragon already possessed power equal to his own.
It was now obvious that the demon-like army that annihilated Apokolips had been used as nourishment for the bone dragon's growth.
As for how strong it had become now, Darkseid couldn't even begin to estimate.
In any case—run first, ask questions later.
In a blink, the Black Death Emperor and the God of Symbiotes, Knull, appeared before Allen.
A scythe infused with the power of death made a gentle slash before him.
The terrifying force seemed to slice through space itself.
Shhk—
A ripping sound.
Allen looked down to see a deep black scar seared across his chest.
Thick death energy surged in, trying to consume his body—only to be held at bay by a mysterious force.
"The protective power of the Tenth Metal," the Black Death Emperor muttered in shock.
Indeed, the Tenth Metal's abilities defied all logic.
Allen had only understood it as a material that could morph into weapons.
But now—
"Reality distortion."
He swept a hand across the invading death energy. The Calamity Ring shimmered, releasing a beam of light that formed a miniature black hole, swallowing the Black Death Emperor's fatal blow.
In Allen's hands, the Calamity Ring's power was pushed to its peak.
Its previous owner had been a mere mortal, nowhere near Allen's level of broken—a man with eighty-four times the normal physical stats.
"Boys, gang up on him."
With that command—
The nine eighteenth-tier skeletal undead instantly surrounded the Black Death Emperor.
Still shaped like skeleton soldiers, but visually distinct.
Without exception, each radiated a presence not inferior to Darkseid.
"Scythe of Death!"
Suddenly, the Black Death Emperor's weapon expanded tenfold, its phantom-like form slashing through the undead army.
"What the hell are these creatures?"
The next moment, his eyes widened in disbelief as the nine-headed undead just stared at him in confusion.
Normally, any form of life would have their soul extinguished in a single move from him.
But apparently… these undead didn't even have souls to reap.
Which made sense. Skeleton-type undead inherently lacked souls, relying instead on soul flames—and being death-born gods, they were naturally immune to death energy.
"Kill!"
The undead gods—Death God, Underworld God, War God and others—all eighteenth-tier beings, launched a barrage of divine weapons and terrifying auras.
"They're all death-type gods?!"
The Black Death Emperor's expression was like "shock incarnate." He was stunned to the core.
Death-type gods like death gods, underworld gods, and ghost gods usually resided in the underworld and rarely, if ever, stepped into the mortal realm.
The Black Death Emperor was a special case. As a dimensional lord, he had refused to join the underworld faction.
The reason? He didn't want to be tied down by underworld conventions, which would prevent him from ascending to origin-tier existence.
The real reason he'd been so obsessed with building the Black Lantern Corps across the multiverse was to gather enough energy through the central battery to push his true body to the next level.
But right now, this was just a clone.
Fighting nine New God-level enemies, he had to throw in everything he had.
All because his death power had no effect on them.
"Die already!"
Shhk!
A pitch-black greatsword, its surface writhing with liquid, suddenly pierced through Allen's back.
It was a divine weapon of the rarest kind in the universe.
Known by many names: All-Black the Necrosword, Symbiote Sword, Godslayer Blade.
"Huh?"
Allen turned around blankly to look at Knull, who had sneak-attacked him. "Why'd you stab me?"
"..."
The God of Symbiotes, Knull, stared in disbelief as Allen's body phased into a shadow and disappeared.
Timeline Rewrite.
An excellent survival trick.
Smack!
Allen emerged silently before Knull via a timeline jump, slapping him across the face with his Tenth Metal-forged Supreme Slipper. With dead seriousness, he asked, "Why did you stab me?"
That one slap left Knull momentarily stunned.
A slipper slap? Seriously?
So humiliating.
The attack had zero lethality—but infinite insult.
"I'll kill you!"
Knull roared. From afar, the Xeno species who were resisting symbiote infection suddenly began exuding black substances.
Like tadpoles, they shot toward Knull's location.
"Oh boy… final form unlocked."
Allen didn't panic—he watched from a distance, peeking around curiously, politely letting the other guy finish his power-up sequence.
Soon, the black liquid writhing on the Necrosword became even more intense, seemingly restored to its peak form.
Truthfully, Knull, even without external enhancements, already had strength equal to peak Odin. With the divine weapon in hand, he was terrifyingly invincible.
After all, the Necrosword had been forged by Knull himself from the corpse of a slain Celestial. It was equivalent to a god in sword form.
"You're pretty good at dodging."
Knull plunged the sword into the void and grinned, revealing a horrific smile. "Living Abyss."
In an instant, shadows erupted from the blade, spreading outward in all directions.
"Hey, are you copying me?"
Allen scratched his chin and said confidently, "Looks just like my Lights-Out Protocol."
"Classic. Marvel and DC plagiarizing each other again."
Allen was sure of it. Both companies had been at it for years.
The Living Abyss and Lights-Out Protocol were both domain-type powers that summoned monsters for aid in battle.
"Lights out!"
Allen scratched his crotch—purely because it was itchy—and released his Lights-Out Protocol.
Boom!
The shadow domain clashed with the dark domain.
They couldn't merge or stack. The borders repelled one another. Soon, waves of monsters appeared and began tearing at each other.
Although… they looked more like they were tickling each other through a screen.
Clearly, the power of the Calamity Ring couldn't match a god-king-tier weapon. The dark domain visibly shrank.
"Die already!"
Knull, now in full berserk form, looked completely symbiote-like.
But in truth, it was Knull who had created the Necrosword, and passed on his traits to the symbiotes during its forging.
In one stride, he burst out of the shadow domain and slashed straight at Allen's forehead.
Yet Allen still wore a faint smile.
Suddenly, the sword twisted midair—and stabbed backward.
Shhk…
"Aaagh! My kidney!"
Blood soaked Allen's hospital gown as the Necrosword pierced his abdomen.
The blade was so wide, it even hit his ribcage.
"Ow ow ow!!!"
This time, it was a real injury.
Since all his time-traveling began, this was Allen's first time actually getting hurt.
The pain sent him rolling on the ground—though he looked surprisingly lively.
"I control time too," Knull sneered triumphantly.
Aside from being the God of Symbiotes, Knull also had some time-manipulation capabilities.
But unlike the Calamity Ring, which could locally rewrite a timeline, Knull's powers only let him move along a timeline's flow. Even so, it allowed him to accurately sense Allen's position in time.
True mastery of time—with all its capabilities—was reserved for origin-tier entities who studied the law of time itself.
"It's time to get serious."
Allen cast Light of Healing over the wound and stood up again.
The X-Ring shone with silver light, forming silver-white armor over his body.
At the same time, Calamity Ring energy coursed through his veins, making the vessels on his face glow white.
"Interesting."
Knull readied his blade and attacked again.
This time, he would not leave Allen a second chance.
"Oppai Humiliation Beam."
Cleansing Light.
A ray of pure white light burst forth from Allen's arm.
Yet in both hands, he still held the Supreme Slipper—making the whole pose incredibly awkward.
"Light-based power?!"
Seeing the attack approach, Knull's face twisted. He instinctively blocked with the Necrosword, a flicker of panic in his eyes.
"Sorry, I read the comics. I know you're Annihilation's avatar," Allen said smugly.
Hmm…
The white light struck the Necrosword—but did no damage.
Knull relaxed. False alarm.
It was just for show.
"This farce ends now."
Knull sneered, "The only one who can defeat me… is Eternity's avatar."
Eternity—the avatar of Annihilation's counterpart, one of the Four Abstract Entities of Creation.
Allen had once temporarily inherited that power and even defeated the Phoenix Force.
Yes, mouth-to-mouth.
Suddenly, a cross-shaped star shimmered in the dark cosmos.
"Eternity's Power!"
Well, speak of the devil.
Knull began to suspect his own big mouth had summoned this disaster.
The moment anyone mentioned Eternity, it knew—and this time, the name had come from its enemy. Naturally, it responded.
"Old friend! I'm over here!"
Allen beamed like a 200-pound child, waving at the star.
WHAM!
A star the size of a fist hit him squarely in the face at lightspeed.
Like getting mowed down by a cosmic semi-truck.
Uhh…
Did these two have beef?
Knull stood dumbfounded.
Wasn't Eternity's power supposed to be peaceful and graceful? Why did Allen get sucker punched right off the bat?
Still, Knull found it satisfying.
Boom!
Allen slammed into the surface of a dead planet, carving a human-shaped crater into the ground.
"Is he dead?"
Knull muttered, "Could he really have pissed off Eternity?"
At that moment, a hand rose from the pit.
Half-transparent, shimmering with the light of countless stars.
"I'm Captain Universe again."
Crawling out, Allen looked like a walking galaxy.
But instead of looking at Knull, he turned his eyes to the void—
The Spirit of Existence.
Somewhere between reality and illusion, a cocoon of light held a humanoid being, struggling to descend into the human dimension, trapped by some unknown barrier.
"…Forget it. I'll deal with that later."
In a flash, Allen teleported back to space, resuming his standoff with Knull.
"Even with Eternity's help, I'll kill you all the same."
As soon as the words left his mouth, purple flames flared around Knull.
He roared, "Annihilation Death Beam!"
BOOM—
A beam of purple energy.
Dark matter energy capable of disintegrating anything in existence.
Divine Domain.
Light's Protection.
Embrace of the Guardian.
A ring of holy light flared beneath Allen's feet. Pure white wings unfolded from his back, shielding him.
With Eternity's power empowering him, Allen's priest skills reached a whole new level—completely transformed.
When the beam subsided—
Allen peeked from behind the wings, "C'mon, hit me harder. I wanna die."
Knull, panting heavily, wanted to curse—but was too exhausted to even speak.
To unleash annihilation power at this level—he might never get another chance like this in his entire life. With this intensity, even Odin and Zeus could be lined up and blasted into scraps.
"You done or what, Skinny Dog?"
Allen, like a turtle retreating into its shell, peeked out with eyes brimming with unspoken provocation.
To be fair, Knull really did look quite a bit like a scrawny dog.
"Give me a minute to recover. I'll definitely blast you to death the second time," Knull panted.
"If you can't go on, then just admit it. Forcing it won't just hurt your pride—it'll wreck your body too."
Allen didn't give him a chance to recover mana. Without hesitation, he activated the Angel Summoning skill.
In the void of the dark cosmos, a portal of light opened up.
The burst of light-elemental power made the Black Lantern zombies and Black Lantern warriors caught in the melee consciously avoid the battle zone between Allen and Knull.
"Oh ho... Thirty-Six-Winged Angels."
Each of the five angels bore eighteen pairs of radiant wings, and within their sacred domain, all of their attributes were doubled.
"What the hell is this?"
Knull's brain briefly short-circuited. He remembered that angels existed in the Genesis Star and the Heavenly Kingdom, but they were nothing exaggerated—mere cannon fodder even symbiotic beings could handle.
But the ones before him now were completely different—each one was overwhelming, even surpassing Father-level combat power.
Run!
No question about it—this fight was unwinnable.
The moment the thought of fleeing hit him, Knull tried to leap into the River of Time.
However, a terrifying realization struck—he saw the skies above the River of Time blanketed by a radiant, flame-like golden light infused with the power of light.
There was no doubt: Allen had buffed the angels.
Among them, the angel playing the mage role—Seraph of Wisdom—had actually mastered time-based abilities.
"What a shame… If only I were really that powerful."
All of this had been lent to him by Eternity. Once this was over, it would all be taken back, and he'd be knocked back to square one.
"You two, take this and beat him with it."
Allen held up the Supreme Slipper.
The Battle Angel and the Seraph hesitated, a slight frown appearing on their handsome faces.
"Don't be shy! Take it and smack the hell out of him!" Allen urged.
Reluctantly, the two angels stepped forward and accepted the slippers, forged from the Tenth Metal.
And from that point, the situation took a turn for the ridiculous.
The Seraph of Wisdom locked down the battlefield to cut off any escape routes for Knull, while the remaining four angels launched a wild onslaught.
Most humiliating of all, the Battle Angel and Seraph would seize any opening to whack Knull with those shiny, silver slippers.
It was downright brutal.
The dignified god of the Symbiotes… reduced to this disgrace.
And Allen, the instigator, hid under their wings like a chick breaking out of its shell, watching the fight and occasionally yelling out, "Hit him in the face! Kick him in the crotch!"
Tsk…
The Seraph gave Allen a look of displeasure.
Why did he have so much to say? They already agreed to use the slippers—what was he doing micromanaging on the sidelines? She honestly felt like tossing the slippers and quitting on the spot.